Self-Study

For a puzzlers’ party in 1993, University of Wisconsin mathematician Jim Propp devised a “self-referential aptitude test,” a multiple-choice test in which each question except the last refers to the test itself:

1. The first question whose answer is B is question

(A) 1
(B) 2
(C) 3
(D) 4
(E) 5

2. The only two consecutive questions with identical answers are questions

(A) 6 and 7
(B) 7 and 8
(C) 8 and 9
(D) 9 and 10
(E) 10 and 11

3. The number of questions with the answer E is

(A) 0
(B) 1
(C) 2
(D) 3
(E) 4

The full 20-question test is here, the solution is here, and an interesting collection of solving routes is here.

(Jim Propp, “Self-Referential Aptitude Test,” Math Horizons 12:3 [February 2005], 35.)